Well it was fantastic, he is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Whenever any actor is asked what another actor is like, you're never going to hear the dirt. I mean you're just not. But with Mel there wasn't any dirt.

He was just starting off his career in Australia. He's American, but he went to Australia when he was ten, and he stayed in Australia until after Mad Max 3. At the time he did Mad Max 2 he wasn't really a huge superstar so we all felt really relaxed.

I try and always be relaxed anyway, so if I meet someone who's a big superstar I usually just try and be normal, it's the best thing, but it can get a little bit tricky if you are a bit star struck. I remember once I met Sting. I admire him so much, and I love his music, and I didn't know what to say.

Those of you who know how much I love to prattle on will be dumbfounded to know that I could not find any words to say. Someone said, "This is Sting, Virginia." I went, "Ahhh, I've got to go to the loo," and then I ran.

Mel's a lovely guy and very very funny. He started to play all the pranks I think later on in Hollywood when there was more time. In the beginning stages of your career, and certainly in Australia, there's not the time to play pranks because we shoot very quickly, but he used to keep us laughing.

Mel [had] to keep his energy up, because he played that kind of driven, energetic character. He's naturally a very humorous guy and he's got a sick sense of humour, but also it helps to keep the energy of the character going. He's a really beautiful gentle soul, very much in love with his wife. They had a little baby on set and now he's a real family man

Mel is a really lovely guy and he's not up his own bum, so he used to hang out at the pub with all of us. We were in the desert so there was one pub and one motel and we were all squished in the motel. Poor Broken Hill, that's all I can say, [it was full of] these lunatics punks with bare bottoms and Mohawks and mad face painting. Nowadays you see it in the street, but in those days in the middle of Australia you didn't see anything like that so.